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Old Tired Squire In Action

Sunday, May 4, 2014

A couple of weeks ago I announced that I was going back to basics. At the time, I didn't realize how far back I needed to go! :-)

How I Began

My original thought was that I was in pretty good shape for a man of 60, but I needed to add body weight exercises to my cardio workout, and go back to working on basic SCA combat techniques to improve my foot work and shot mechanics. If only it was that easy!

As a start off point, I looked at some sites I'd visited before for some inspiration. This led to me re-visiting Following the Path of the Sword, the blog of Duke Cornelius von Becke, KSCA, OL, who lives in the Kingdom of Lochac.

The specific posting was Conditioning for Beginners, and appeared to be what I was looking for in a beginning body weight problem.

20 Squats – make sure you are not leaning forward and the weight is on your heels.

Into the Deep End

But could I leave well enough alone? Oh, no. Of course not! So I followed the link to the "related" article on Duke Cornelius' page to the Do You Even Lift? page, which linked to Primal Fitnessand Nerd Fitness, and I had passed the point of no return. And so this week, I joined the Nerd Fitness Rebellion and set out on a new adventure which will, obviously complement and improve my adventure in following the path of chivalry. For one's prowess on the field of chivalric honor builds on one's fitness.
But was I through and finally Back to Basics? Well, apparently not, as I began to see while delving into the wealth of information on Nerd Fitnessand discovered that even a complete warm up routine may be beyond me at my current fitness level (considering previously obtained injuries and just plain wear and tear of age).

As an aside, let me confess that I have almost NEVER done squats per se, despite knowing their efficacy as an exercise. I simply never had anyone to teach me the correct way to do them and was afraid of hurting myself. I had toyed withYoga Squats, but had difficulty doing them and didn't persevere. But I vowed this time would be different.But immediately I found a problem. Steve warns that a proper warm up is vital and that, if time was limited, it was better to cut the work out short than the warm up. But what warm up?I settled on an impromptu set of jumping jacks and running in place, but I wasn't satisfied. And here I was, an experienced exerciser and heavy weapons fighter and I didn't even know a good warm up routine? Sheesh, can't an old guy catch a break?

Even Farther Back To Basics

So today I took some time after church to wander around the Nerd Fitness(and sign up for the free forums) and lo and behold Steve had posed a How to Warm Up Properly and Avoid Injury lesson. But, the warm up routine is more extensive than the Beginning Body Weight routine!

And So It Goes

So, it looks like I have my work cut out for me! Today I will start working on introducing the warm up into my program and go on from there. The warm up may, in fact, replace the Beginning Body Weight program for now, with the addition of dips for my triceps.

The good news is that the Beginner Body Weight program does not seem to aggravate my shoulder pain and may even be helping it. I will take it easy and see what happens.